Thank you to the wonderful gardener dude who came to clear out the backyard on Saturday. He and his assistant spent 6 hours getting us back to a blank slate. Once we saw how much vegetation ended up in his truck to haul away we realized there is NO WAY we could have done that. Certainly not in 6 hours. And certainly not without a significant amount of pain.

We are happy – but with a few reservations. The blackberry brambles next to the back fence hid a serious issue – we’ve now lost about 3 feet of soil to the creek. Not good – and a retaining wall will require all sorts of wrangling with the city so we are left to consider how to stop further erosion (and further loss of our yard) without harming creek life. On a budget. Another day.

Today I went to Big Orange and bought black plastic tarps which we laid to cover the bare dirt – hopefully baking all remaining weeds and giving us a clean canvas for planning.

Kitchen update: 1. He made some adjustments to the faucet because it was wiggling around a lot in the hole. All seems better now. 2. I’m ready to return to cutting things now that I am more confident that nothing creepy is going to be climbing up my leg.

Critter update: 1. There was a dead something-or-other under that original black plastic we’d laid last May. It was quite decayed and not easy to identify. The neighborhood cat that had been hanging out back there was likely the culprit. 2. New gopher holes appeared within 24 hours. Well, naturally, they weren’t new, but we could see them. 3. A big hunkin squirrel is pretty mad. He’s been running all over the property wondering where the hell all his stuff is. I would be sad for him if I were a squirrel.

The Trash

Erosion is at the foot of the back fence - that plank of wood that used to sit on dirt is just hanging there